Barca Win Despite Going Down to Nine-Man

The Blaugrana continued their steady march towards retaining la Liga title after defeating Getafe 2-1 at the Camp Nou. The Catalans had two players sent-off as Gerard Pique received his marching orders after 26 minutes with the score 1-0 in Barca’s favour.

The star for the Barca side was the magical Lionel Messi who scored the opening goal and assisted on the second one as he made sure Getafe could not take advantage of Barca’s numerical inferiority. The home team conceded a late penalty converted by Roberto Soldado after Rafael Marquez was sent-off. The league table shows Barca have won a stunning 17 out 21 matches played without suffering a single defeat.

The Catalans are clearly one of the best teams in Spain and across Europe. It could be argued the side assembled under the guidance of Josep Guardiola is one of the best in the last 20 years. The Real Madrid team which was led by Zinedine Zidane to Champions League glory and the Milan team which dismantled Barca 4-0 in the 1990s are perhaps the two other contenders for such an honour (Manchester United treble winning team was also special).

There is no doubting the abundance of talent in the Barca team with Messi, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic all capable of walking straight into any of the European elite club’s starting lineup and making a telling contribution.

It looks unlikely that Real Madrid can halt Barca’s path to maintaining the la Liga title in the Catalan city. Perhaps a victory for Los Galacticos when the two teams meet in Madrid can give hope for Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka to win the league title in their first season in Spain. If Barca do retain both the la Liga and the Champions League titles then this team could be considered as one of the best ever in the history of club football. Can anyone argue with that notion considering the quality and flair being displayed by the side while winning in such a convincing manner?